The Work Behind Our Progress

September 22, 2026

Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

Today, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rutgers University–New Brunswick No. 14 among public universities nationwide, our highest public university ranking to date.

I am proud of that recognition. But what I am most proud of is the progress behind it. More students are graduating on time and getting experience beyond the classroom. Our faculty are finding new ways to work together and pursue ambitious research. And our staff are strengthening the programs, services, and experiences that make our university work. That is what progress looks like to me.

What Has Changed

Several years ago, the Rutgers–New Brunswick community helped shape our Academic Master Plan. A campuswide survey drew more than 4,000 responses from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners about our strengths, opportunities, and areas needing greater focus.

What followed was not a single initiative or decision. It was a series of choices about where we needed to pay closer attention.

We strengthened advising and academic support. We expanded internships, research opportunities, and other ways for students to put their education into practice. We created more opportunities for faculty to work across schools and disciplines. And our staff have helped turn those priorities into the programs, services, and day-to-day experiences that shape life at our university.

Some of the results are easy to see in the numbers. Our four-year graduation rate has increased from 61 percent to 69 percent. Sixty-one percent of our graduates report having participated in internships and other career-related experiences as undergraduates. Sponsored research expenditures increased from $262.9 million in 2022 to $324.2 million in 2025.

But the reason those numbers matter is not the numbers themselves. A higher graduation rate means more students finishing what they came here to do. An internship or research experience can help a student discover a field they had never considered. Growth in sponsored research means more ideas being explored, more people working together, and more opportunities for discoveries made here to have an impact beyond our campuses.

That is the progress I care about most.

Who Gets to Benefit

One other result in this year’s rankings deserves attention. Rutgers–New Brunswick ranks third among Big Ten universities for social mobility.

At its core, social mobility is about giving students from families with fewer financial resources the opportunity to attend college, graduate, and build their futures.

Being a great public university means opening doors, but it cannot stop there. Students also need a real chance to succeed once they walk through them.

Students need support when challenges come up and opportunities to explore careers, participate in research, and put what they are learning into practice. College should prepare them for what comes next while giving them the chance to figure out what they want that future to look like.

This is where academic excellence and our public mission meet. We should be able to conduct exceptional research, attract extraordinary faculty, and offer a rigorous education while creating opportunities for students whose lives may be changed by access to all of it. At Rutgers–New Brunswick, those goals belong together.

The Work Ahead

Reaching No. 14 gives us a moment to recognize how far Rutgers–New Brunswick has come. It does not tell us that the work is finished.

There are students we can serve better. There are barriers we still need to remove. There are faculty with ambitious ideas who need the right conditions to pursue them. And there are staff across our university whose expertise and dedication make so much of this work possible.

The Academic Master Plan organized our work around scholarly leadership, innovative research, student success, and community engagement. What matters now is how those pieces come together.

Progress means more students finding their way through Rutgers and leaving prepared for what comes next. It means giving faculty the support and opportunities to pursue ideas that change what we know. It means recognizing the staff whose work strengthens our university every day. And it means using Rutgers’ extraordinary breadth to make New Jersey and the communities we serve stronger.

Those are the measures of progress that matter most to me. Reaching No. 14 is worth celebrating. So are the students, faculty, and staff whose work brought us here.

There is more to do. And there is a great deal to build on.

Francine Conway 
Chancellor 
Rutgers University–New Brunswick